ABC LOVES RON PAUL

What’s really awesome about this debate so far is how ABC is only talking about things that are not important, yet coming in from the first commercial break the network showed dramatic readings of the Constitution as if ABC was dead serious.

Peter Jennings And Constitution BFF 4Eva

There are many reasons to miss Peter Jennings. For example, he called Henry Kissinger a war criminal to his face. That’s so awesome I bet Kissinger himself even thought it was awesome. Also, Jennings was a great journalist, an excellent news anchor, etc., etc.

And, according to Gail Shister’s column in the Inquirer, the Canadian-born journalist was also a big fan of the U.S. Constitution:

The late ABC anchor - Canadian by birth, American by choice - revered the archival document so much that he kept a copy in his back pocket.

“He had a million of them,” says his widow, independent producer Kayce Freed Jennings. He loved to hand out copies to friends and colleagues and anyone else with a yearning to be free.

Shister also talks with CBS Evening News head Rick Kaplan, who worked with Jennings on ABC World News Tonight, who has adapted the trait as his own and also carries a copy of the Constitution with him at all times.

Kaplan called the Constitution “the most liberating, wonderful document that human beings could ever have possibly written, next to the Ten Commandments.” Clearly he’s never read LL Cool J’s Platinum Workout: Sculpt Your Best Body Ever with Hollywood’s Fittest Star, which is what I carry on my person at all times.

Gail Shister | Constitution always dear, and very near, to Jennings [Inquirer]

Bah! Who Cares About So-Called ‘Rights’! This Is An Election!

We’ve been covering the anti-Myspace bill introduced by UPS man and U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, for a while now, and it’s time to give someone else the floor.

First, a bit of background: Fitzpatrick’s bill, officially the (yuk yuk) Deleting Online Predators Act — DOPA, I presume? — would force schools and libraries to block children from viewing social networking sites, such as Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, etc. It’s unclear if this would block social networking sites that are more about, say, photo sharing, like Flickr.

Anyway, obviously this bill is trying to stop children from being the victim of old dirty men trolling for them online, or something, and that’s fine. Naturally, of course, it does nothing really to stop the problem of child predators, but it makes for nice election year press, doesn’t it?

Some of that nice election year press comes, conveniently, from Bucks County Courier Times columnist J.D. Mullane, who wrote about the issue today, specifically Fitzpatrick’s Democratic opponent, Patrick Murphy, who blasted the bill:

I told Murphy it was a blunder to talk about “constitutional rights” when the issue is protecting children from pervs.

It’s OK to be high-minded on all that “rights” jazz when you’re trolling for votes during primary season. But when the general election season begins, as it has, it’s best to respect the family-oriented sensibilities of the suburban heartland, which defines most of Bucks County, but especially defines where I live, Levittown.

In my house, children have no “constitutional rights.” I am the law, judge and jury. My word is final. Three weeks ago, I was at the top of my game in this role during an incident that involved, coincidently, MySpace.com.

With Mullane on the case, no predator is safe! And neither are your rights!

A blunder in race for Congress [Bucks County Courier Times]
May 19: Rhetoric On Anti-Myspace Bill Reaches New Levels